[KineJapan] Fake film festivals

[Jasper Sharp]

Sadly an all too common phenomenon, especially since the advent some time ago now of online submission websites like Film Freeway where filmmakers pay a submission fee to various events of dubious legitimacy and find not only do their films not reach an audience, they don't reach critics or juries either. All you get in return for your money is a jpeg of some festival Laurels to add to your poster and promotional blurb.
This has been going on for years, especially in North America, but also numerous small towns in the UK. I remember reading one such report in the Guardian about the Swansea Bay Film Festival as far back as 2011: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jun/27/swansea-bay-film-festival-disaster

The object lesson here is if you can't get a film into an established film festival that has a reputation and a sizeable online presence, you probably shouldn't bother submitting.


The Creeping Garden<http://www.creepinggarden.com/> - A Real-Life Science-Fiction Story about Slime Moulds and the People Who Work With them, directed by Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp.
Available now on Dual-Format Blu-ray/DVD from Arrow Films<https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/the-creeping-garden-dual-format/FCD1435>.
The book, The Creeping Garden: Irrational Encounters with Plasmodial Slime Moulds is out now from Alchimia Publishing<http://www.alchimiapublishing.com/creeping-garden/>.
"A surprising investigation of perception, thought and life itself", Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/movies/review-the-creeping-garden-on-the-wonders-of-the-slime-mold.html>.
"An out-of-left-field nerdy delight", John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter<https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/creeping-garden-fantasia-review-724416>.
"Strange, eccentric, diverting", Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian<https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/09/creeping-garden-review-slime-mould-film>.

________________________________
From: KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Aaron Gerow via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Sent: 25 August 2024 01:38
To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Cc: Aaron Gerow <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
Subject: [KineJapan] Fake film festivals

There was much commotion this week as several film festivals "appeared" in Japan that were probably all fake. The Nagoya International Film Festival and the Osaka International Film Festival all seemed like legitimate and sizeable film festivals, but the photos used on their webpages were taken from other festivals or events and the addresses were for film theaters in the locales that knew nothing of the festivals. Some of the filmmakers and actors who appeared in the photos-—which include some FB friends—warned people on SMS that they knew nothing of these festivals and protested their use, even noting some were doctored. The fact that some of the fonts used—as well as the Japanese utilized—were unusual gave some the impression this may be a non-Japanese group of scam artists trying to trick investors or filmmakers into paying to submit their works. The websites have been taken down, but one, the Hiroshima Short Film Festival, is still up, insisting that the complaints against it are mistaken.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/f4a52bc3b356021fd18bcb7e97d881a0b811323c




Aaron Gerow
Alfred W. Griswold Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures and Film and Media Studies
Chair, East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
320 York Street, Room 108
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Phone: 1-203-432-7082
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